Book Publications

Hypnosis and meditation

Towards an integrative science of conscious planes

Edited by Amir Raz and Michael Lifshitz

Research over the past decade has helped to demystify hypnosis and meditation, bringing these practices into the scientific and clinical mainstream.

Hypnosis and Meditation is a valuable resource to both specialists as well as interested lay readers, and paves the road to a more unified science of how attention influences states of brain, body, and consciousness.

Placebo Talks

Modern perspectives on placebos in society

Edited by Amir Raz and Cory Harris

Why do red placebos stimulate whereas blue placebos calm? Why do more placebos work better than few? And why do more expensive placebos work better than cheaper ones? These are some of the key questions that often come to mind when we consider the slippery and counterintuitive field of placebo science.

Placebo Talks invites readers to discover how placebos may speak to their own experiences across health, society, sustenance, and related aspects of contemporary life.

The Psychology of Magic and the Magic of Psychology

Published in Frontiers

Amir Raz, Jay A. Olson and Gustav Kuhn

Magicians have dazzled audiences for many centuries; however, few researchers have studied how, let alone why, most tricks work. The psychology of magic is a nascent field of research that examines the underlying mechanisms that conjurers use to achieve enchanting phenomena, including sensory illusions, misdirection of attention, and the appearance of mind-control and nuanced persuasion.